Mary Curtis

Mary Curtis is a contemporary artist who currently has an exhibition at object space in titled “Metadecorative”. There is something unusual that I find about her style or rather her approach to making her works. For me I view her setting and stuff as traditional jewellery, like jewellery that your grandparents wear- that it kind of has that ancient or from another century look. But what really stands out for me about her work is that she combines these old school designs with more contemporary, more modern materials. The type of materials that she uses are wallpaper, acrylic, soldiering and bits of fabric that looks like they come from the 1950s.

Its kind of unusual to see that kind of material used to make jewellery, I mean they have tradition use of silver in some of the pieces that were on display but she took it further by making jewellery that I've never seen anyone wear before. I mean she has created works of art, so I don’t really know if they can be classified as jewellery or rather as works of art themselves.

So in relation to function and decorative, the way I understand it, is that Mary Curtis combines old school design techniques (like traditional jewellery smithing and settings) and combines it. Or rather uses it as a foundation to create pieces of jewellery that are combines bits of the past and bits of the future (contemporary) together. I guess what makes them functional is that they have a tradition design with modern flair. That maybe the title Metadecorative could be interpreted as a statement about Mary herself. That apart of her is the function and the decorative side of her have met halfway and regenerated together to for her exhibition. So there is function in the ability of the public to want to wear and be able to wear the pieces but at the same time they are kind of art that I don’t think I’d wear or adorn myself with.